{"id":10542,"date":"2016-11-09T15:16:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palomarperforms.com\/?p=10542"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:27:14","slug":"michael-mufson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/michael-mufson\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Mufson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2766 size-thumbnail alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2013\/05\/photo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2013\/05\/photo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2013\/05\/photo-125x125.jpg 125w, https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2013\/05\/photo.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><span class=\"_ap3a _aaco _aacu _aacx _aad7 _aade\" dir=\"auto\">Theatre Artist. Culture Shaker. Teacher. Activist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.palomar.edu\/mmufson\/\"><strong>M<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.palomar.edu\/mmufson\/\"><strong>ichael Mufson<\/strong><\/a> (Professor of Theatre) has a long history in the professional theatre, beginning at the age of sixteen, when he was an apprentice at the Provincetown Playhouse in Massachusetts. Michael, however, traces his theatrical roots back to his family&#8217;s close association with E. Y. Harburg, the lyricist of <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, <em>Finian&#8217;s Rainbow<\/em> and &#8220;Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?&#8221; and who has been one of Michael&#8217;s constant role models.<\/p>\n<p>Michael has worked his way through all levels of the theatre labyrinth positions at some of the Nations most acclaimed regional and summer stock theaters including Arena Stage, StageWest and the Berkshire Theatre Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Michael received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Irvine where he was considered one of the most exciting and accomplished directors to graduate from the program.\u00a0While at Irvine, he directed Bertolt Brecht&#8217;s <em>The Good Person of Setzuan,<\/em> a cross-gender adaptation of Moliere classic &#8220;The Misanthrope&#8221; which he entitled <em>Ms.Anthrope<\/em>,\u00a0Jean-Paul Sartre&#8217;s <em>No Exit<\/em>, <em>The Trial<\/em> adapted from Kafka&#8217;s novel, and <em>True West<\/em> by Sam Shepard.\u00a0Among his other favorite productions are Samuel Beckett&#8217;s <em>Waiting for Godot<\/em> and Moliere&#8217;s <em>The Imaginary Invalid<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Michael is most proud of his on-going affair with original, collaborative performance works that incorporate theatre, music, movement, sculpture, technology and insanity. Michael has\u00a0conceived, directed and performed over twenty original performance works which have been presented across the country from the Center for Contemporary Arts in Cleveland to the Japan American Museum in Los Angeles.\u00a0He is a founder of the experimental art\/performance groups 2AM Productions and Fisheye Mongrel.<\/p>\n<p>Michael has trained with some of the most influential acting teachers and directors of contemporary theatre. He was a participant in Jerzy Grotowski\u2019s intensive training program where he practiced Grotowski\u2019s adaptation of Stanislavki\u2019s method of physical actions as well as other approaches to physical and vocal training, the creation of original performance work, and the roots of theatre in ritual.\u00a0He has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI company in Viewpoints and Composition.\u00a0 Michael has also trained in the Japanese approach of Tadashi Suzuki at StageWest.<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u2019s acting classes involve a rigorous and comprehensive approach to integrating the actor\u2019s body, voice and imagination as an instrument to realize the different demands of all theatre styles.<\/p>\n<p>Michael sums up his philosophy of theatre: &#8220;Theatre is a vital part of community.\u00a0Nowhere else do you have a group of people coming together to share and experience a form of expression which is uniquely human, where the material is forged directly from the heart and soul of our humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Michael A. Mufson<br \/>\nProfessor of Theatre Arts<br \/>\nCo-Chair, Performing Arts Department<br \/>\nmmufson@palomar.edu<br \/>\n(760) 744-1150 ext 2456<br \/>\nmmufson.com<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www2.palomar.edu\/pages\/mmufson\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor &#8211; Theatre Arts <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/michael-mufson\/\">Continue Reading<span> Michael Mufson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10754,"featured_media":2766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-full-time-faculty"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2013\/05\/photo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 12:38:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10542"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109706,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions\/109706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/palomarperforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}